The prevalence of oral habits in preschoolers

Abstract

Purpose: to estimate the prevalence of oral habits of children attending pre-schools in the mid-south region of Sergipe. Method: the sample was consisted after a calculation analysis of 208 preschool children (104 females and 104 males) frequenting two pre-schools in the mid-south region of Sergipe (one public and one private), with ages from two to five years, of both genders. Through an individual form given to their families (part of the clinical history of MBGR Protocol in GENARO et al., 2009), the amount of pre-school children who have oral habits was verified (pacifier, bottle, finger, teeth clenching, tongue suction, bruxism, moistening of lips, nail biting, biting oral mucosa and objects) for further estimate of the prevalence of these habits. The guardians of the participants signed a consent form. The data were submitted to the Equal Proportions and Chi-square tests, adopting a significance level of 5%. Results: there was a high prevalence of oral habits (87.02%), and the bottle-feeding the habit with the highest incidence in the study group. The habit of biting objects was more common in females in public pre-school education, statistically significant differences were not revealed in the relation between the other habits and gender. Digital sucking was associated with younger age groups (2 and 3 years), and bruxism with the higher (4 and 5 years). Conclusion: the high prevalence of harmful oral habits in preschoolers justifies an interdisciplinary action as soon as possible, so that there is no negative impact on the development of the skull-oro-cervical complex and, consequently, on the oral functions.